Swiss vote on citizenship, post

In referendums, the cornerstone of their finely honed system of direct democracy, voters will decide whether to loosen the Alpine country's tough rules on citizenship for foreigners, and whether to block their government's cost-cutting campaign to shut post offices, historically the glue that has held Swiss society together.

The nastier of the two campaigns is over the government's proposal to change the constitution's rules on citizenship. Under slogans like "mass giveaway" and "don't sell out Switzerland," right-wing opponents are portraying Osama bin Laden's photo on a Swiss ID card and have put up posters showing black and brown hands reaching for a pile of Swiss passports.

Left-wing and centrist parties have run full-page newspaper ads denouncing the campaign as racist and "spreading unjustified fear and hatred."

The changes, which voters are expected to approve, reflect a recognition that Switzerland, long accustomed to homogeneity within its Alpine ramparts, is becoming a multicultural society.

The post office campaign, though more benign, appears more divisive, with polls showing no clear majority either way.

To the outside world, Switzerland's symbol of fiscal steadfastness is its banks. But to ordinary Swiss, it is the more than 3,300 post offices. Virtually all bills sent to households include a form for payment at the post office counter. Retirees can collect their pensions there. Many Swiss have post office bank accounts and debit cards.

Switzerland has been privatizing its communications industry and has closed 668 post offices in the past three years. But Swiss have objected in large enough numbers to amass the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum in hopes of halting the closures.